Ecology of metapopulations and metacommunities of atmospheric bromeliads

Author(s)

Cleber Juliano Neves Chaves

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Rio Claro. 2019-03-15.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp). Instituto de Biociências. Rio Claro
• Defense date: 2019-02-08
• Advisor: Davi Rodrigo Rossatto; Clarisse Palma da Silva

Abstract

Atmospheric bromeliads are a group of ca. 300 species of Tillandsia genus, which usually is the dominant group of vascular epiphytes in upper and outer canopy layers of American forests. Many drought adaptations made these plants be known as the extremest case of vascular epiphyte, forming abundant communities on trees of anthropic environments and attaching even to abiotic substrates, as posts and wires. Due to their distribution on distinct trees, seen as habitat patches in an inhospitable matrix, epiphytic communities are regarded as ‘ideal systems’ for the empiric study of metacommunities. Under the Metacommunity Theory, we deal in each chapter of this thesis with topics such as functional ecology, population genetics, individual-based modelling (IBM), and ecology of weeds, to understand natural patterns of distribution and coexistence among species of atmospheric bromeliads. The structure of this thesis is according the paradigms of Metacommunity Theory of Leibold et al. (2004). In the first chapter, we address the influence of canopy heterogeneity on the abundance and distribution of atmospheric bromeliads in an anthropic environment with multiple functional groups of trees. In the second chapter, we test the influence of tree traits on the assembling of metacommunities of atmospheric bromeliads in multiple scales and whether these effects are affected by the increase or reduction on the connectivity of local communities, arising from distinct regional tree densities. In the third chapter, we test possible positive and negative interactions among three atmospheric bromeliad species with highly overlapping niches and investigate whether these interactions are reflected on their natural coexistence. In the fourth chapter, we tested the genetic structure of a Tillandsia recurvata (L.) L. metapopulation and described its temporal-spatial dynamics through the IBM. We concluded, in the course of the four chapter, that the structure of the epiphytic metacommunity dominated by atmospheric bromeliads depends on the heterogeneity degree and connectivity among their local communities. Specifically, the assembling of these systems is related to the local combination of distinct tree traits comprising the canopy and the regional tree density. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/04396-4 - COMMUNITIES DOMINATED BY ATMOSPHERIC BROMELIADS AS A MODEL FOR METACOMMUNITIES STUDIES
• Grantee: Cleber Juliano Neves Chaves
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate